Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Someone mentioned that Raicho means "He who kills with his left" in Moratnese. But the HMG is in his right hand, which arguably is his main killing tool.

If I had a rocket punch, I'd prefer killing with that. Blasting the enemy from long range is all well and good, but a grenade launcher that doubles as an explosive close combat weapon, mmm, that's the ticket. :p

Morat language:
Mo = the left
Rat = that which kills
Morat = that which kills with the left

If you look at the early models, they're all left-handed. (And there's enough of them that it's a very long shot that this was coincidental, particularly given their name.)

However, it seems to be something they're increasingly forgetting/ignoring - some of the Human Sphere art was right handed, and now there's the right handed Zerat sniper and Sogarat. Possibly the Yaogats with Panzerfaust too, but they are at least "dual wielding".

But yes, the Morats are (or, were originally) a left handed race. Given the culture and left handed dominance that would have to exist to make it part of the name they give their species, I would be highly surprised if a) there were many right handed Morats at all, and b) they were accommodated politely. I'd say we're talking a lot more extreme than the persecution of left handers in our own past.

O yeah, you know i kind of knew about the name, having read the book (honest), but i completely didnt realise they had actually followed through with this in the models as well, thats actually rather impressive...

However, yes, Im with Ronin, the HMG is for Suppressive fire to let me get close enough to rocket punch someone

Wish I was near some image editing software so I could do a riff on the 40k "move closer, I want to hit them with my sword" image. That would be grand. Either way, my Morat-happy friend should enjoy that. I quite like the overall design of it, very anime villain.

I think the Raicho will be rather ambidextrous in terms of killing ability, from the look of the artwork!

Good to hear/remember the origin of the whole thing though!

That comment about the etymology of the word 'Morat' got me interested, so I read up on some fluff. It was nice to get some slight explanation to why they all look alike. Same colour skin and hair for example. I was thinking about this while painting my Yaogat a while ago and had to choose which colours to use for the hair and skin. Why would they all need to look alike?

How do you (people who collect Morat) paint your guys? Identical colours or some variation?

Hope I'm not derailing the subject too much?

I think if that is the biggest complaint that can be made about that model (or any other for that matter) then we should all be happy..

Bostria at least is happy...

Is there a change to the rules? Right now he has NO CC weapon at all! Strange I think.

The other weapon is either a Heavy Flamer or HGL.

It's not featured in the army list section, so I guess it will use the existing profile.

 Inanimate wrote:

How do you (people who collect Morat) paint your guys? Identical colours or some variation?

I vary hair colours a bit from a light blue to white to bright purple.

That art of the Raicho made me start seriously looking at a Morat Aggression Force, even though I'm not overly fond of CA's fluff.

And I can do it with my favorite models. Suryat leuitenant. 3 Vanguard with combi rifles. Vanguard with HMG. Zerat hacker, Zerat Sniper. 200pts. Raicho slots right in to make it 300pts.

This also gives me a direct opposing force to my friends Aleph, and is really cheap.

This fething game.

I think that just pushed me into Morat Territory as well.

Oh, and I'm not dead!

I've actually been spending a lot of time painting, but a lot of stuff I've been forum AFK for a while. I'll try to remedy this as well.

I'm going on a weeklong vacation, and having just finished up a majority of my PanO, I now only have a handful of random models to work on... a djanbazan, a Hexas, another Muyib.... oh, and that hardass Morat Engineer with the Mk12. That will be the start of my slide towards the Raicho!

Glad to see you back CC!

It's been a while ! Welcome back !

S'good to be back!

I'll try and take some photos tonight before packing for my trip.

Hopefully by the end of the year I'll be posting a painted picture of a Raicho!

I called up Carlos and told him to forget the Raicho. It just won't sell sadly.

Runs and hides...

 CDK wrote:
I called up Carlos and told him to forget the Raicho. It just won't sell sadly.

Runs and hides...

Is that way I got a email that said, "Sorry late 2013". Damn you.

Im imagining some rather stern PMs are flying you way right about now CDK

This thread needs more Raicho!

ACTUAL Raicho - in case the Usual Suspects were getting ready for any of the Usual Shenanigans!

Aww and i was all ready to jump on the bandwagon....

...are we there yet..?

 Alpharius wrote:
This thread needs more Raicho!

Seriously, that's just asking for trouble. Where do you expect we're going to get new information that just isn't out yet?

But on a similar note, I've been increasingly wondering why they chose the name Raicho:


A gamebird isn't exactly something that inspires a sense of awe.

Most of the rest of the TAGs fit into one of three categories - mythological (Jotum, Tikbalang, Dragao, Sphinx, Avatar), predatory (Squalo, Stingray, Salamander, Gecko) or historical (Uhlans, O-Yoroi, Maghariba, Cutter).
The exceptions are:
- Guijia ("Tortoise shell" - but that's a famous example of natural armour),
- Iguana & Lizard (both fit the Nomad theme, but the first is herbivorous, the latter is a phylogenetic suborder and too wide to pin down)
- Caskuda (An Acontecimento "Cockroach from hell")

The Raicho's naming really is a bit of an odd one out. Also, it's Japanese - which, given the Nipponese aren't supposed to be very popular in the Yu Jing culture, seems even more out of place in terms of becoming the official ISC name.

I was interested, so I did a search. The first three results are a train, feminist and legendary bird (all japanese).

I'm 80% sure that Rai is lightning in japanese (I've seen a little too much anime in my life, and in Pokémon Raikou is the legendary beast of lightning whilst Raichu is a... lighting-mouse).

Same here, the quick Google did bring this little quote:

The Japanese Thunder-Bird. It looks like a rook, but can make a terrible noise.

Maybe the Japanese Sectorial forces were the first to deal with the Raicho in combat, therefor getting it it's name. Unless of course Raicho is the Morat name, where it would mean something completely different and just happens to be named like something that already exists in an Earth Language.

I like to think it's the first one, imagining an O-Yoroi facing off against a Raicho, both with Close Combat Weapons out, ready to commence the badassery.

 Dheneb wrote:
train, feminist and legendary bird (all japanese)

The bird is actually quite obscure Japanese Mythology. I spent ages chasing down the idea, and it only appears on a relatively small fraction of lists of mythical Japanese creatures, and never with more than a few words of description. I can't actually track down any old time-y myths in which it features, either.

In Japanese, "Raicho" would typically refer to the Ptarmigan (and it won't easily show up on English searches, because it's not a common to use the Japanese name for it in English). It's a bit of an inverse to the name "Salamander" - which can either refer to mythological fire creature or a newt thing (although lizard like, it is actually an amphibian) - where while it is still both legend and actual creature, the legend is far less well known than the actual creature.

As for the train... I doubt nearly a two century old use of the name for rail transport is the first thing to mind when naming an alien death machine.
Heck, it'd be pretty ridiculous to call a combat machine after similarly old rail transport today, even with the benefit of that being a far more notable and memorable time in the history of rail transport - that was the time of the Rainhill trials!

As an example, try to name more than two of the locomotives at Rainhill. And then, remember that any of the five you fail to name are some of the most important and famous locomotives that ever existed, not a fairly average express train from the middle of rail history.

I did all this research! This is why I find it so weird.

Or... OR...

...we're all thinking too much.